From art directing the interiors of a children’s hospital to creating interactive walls, Award winning Graphic Designer, Tim Samaha is all about design projects that require exploration, research, innovation, and constant progress. He spoke to us on visual think tanks and life in and after the pandemic.

Here are excerpts from our session with him:

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CR8VSPOT: Tell us about yourself.

Tim Samaha: I’m a Principle Creative for Dell Technology Services. I consider myself a “brand storyteller,” using digital, print, interactive, and environmental media to create holistic design experiences.

CR8VSPOT: How has your creative journey been?

TS: In a word—unusual! I’ve learned the importance of grit and determination balanced with a love for life. I graduated straight into the Great Recession and I lived in south Louisiana. New Orleans was supposed to be the Next Big Thing, but between the recession and the Hurricane Katrina aftermath, no major agencies were hiring. I kept learning new skills to broaden my freelance capabilities. By the time I had a solid full-time job, I had a strong background in several design disciplines; and I was able to work with video, web, or traditional agencies and speak their language. But I also learned to love business. This pushed me into the corporate marketing world of high-stakes design that had to maintain brand identity while pushing creative boundaries and delivering ROI. Thus, it’s easier to describe myself as a “brand storyteller.”

—“I learned how to listen to everyone, toss ego out the window, and develop the best solution for the project at hand.”

CR8VSPOT: Please share some of the steps you took to get to this point in your career?

TS: As a student, I simply wanted to be an Imagineer, and I focused on digital design and art history. I even had a professional internship with the Walt Disney Company, but it was in photography, not Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI). This was back before Disney actively recruited online, and it was almost impossible to crack the code to get a job at WDI unless you knew people. But I made connections and kept my eyes open to how various media could combine into one holistic experience. This was before “brand” and “experience” had become the god-awful buzzwords they are today.

After the internship, I explored ways to combine print, digital, and physical design back home near New Orleans. For example, I worked on theatrical set designs, plus the related graphics, plus the video packages. I kept improving my coding skills and spent about two years primarily as a web designer. Most importantly, I learned the value of teamwork and trading ideas with other creatives. I learned how to listen to everyone, toss ego out the window, and develop the best solution for the project at hand. Over the years, that combination of skill and teamwork opened doors for me to do everything from brand identity to TV commercials to art-directing the interiors of a children’s hospital.

CR8VSPOT: Not long ago, you received an outstanding award as the most creative person in Baton Rouge, Louisiana…can you tell us about it.

TS: Hahaha, that’s an embarrassing question! I spent about 6-½ years as a Senior Designer, and then a Creative Strategist, for the FMOL health system based in Baton Rouge. I was fortunate to work with a great team of people, and our VP of Marketing championed any strong idea I had. If it wasn’t a good idea, she said so, and she helped me make it better. You need that kind of honesty if you really want to be a good creative! I owe so much to her because she let me flex outside the typical walls of healthcare marketing. Over those years, she allowed me to bring major projects in-house, and we won many Gold Addy Awards, including Best-in-Show, plus a few national awards like HOW In-house. And this was just at a hospital in Baton Rouge, going head-to-head with agencies in New Orleans and Baton Rouge! The “Creative Director of the Year” award came as I was wrapping up my work on the Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital.

CR8VSPOT: You also played a major role with the creative team behind the creation of mascots for the largest children’s hospital in Louisiana which opened in October 2019. What was it like?

TS: That was incredible! The health system had already hired HKS Architects to design the children’s hospital, and I had four business days to knock out a digital Case Statement book for our Foundation. The in-house clients simply asked, “Please make it look like Louisiana.” That was it. Louisiana ranges from New Orleans Mardi Gras, to bayou-country gator and crawfish, to magnolia trees and sugarcane fields! Talk about possibilities! I drew some animal icons that represented different parts of the state and threw them on top of watercolor landscapes which I’d assembled in Photoshop. Don’t judge me; I only had four days.

But when the hospital’s leadership team saw the Case Statement, they asked if I could work with HKS to advise on the building’s interiors. Over four years, I became more involved and ended up art-directing the environmental design package, plus creating some of it myself. Those watercolor backgrounds I hastily threw together in Photoshop inspired a new theme for the hospital—the flow of the Mississippi River through Louisiana landscapes. I worked with Angela Cole, an amazing interior designer based in New Orleans, and we combined my family of Louisiana Critters with interior design to establish environments throughout the hospital.

I knew the little animal icons could be way finders, but they weren’t strong enough for branding, and I illustrated new versions based on mid-century cartoon characters. They became the mascots and now exist in way-finding, ads, and stuffed animals.

—“Nobody expects you to be excellent at everything, but you need to know enough to talk to people about it.”

CR8VSPOT: How are you handling the resurgence of Covid-19 in Texas and social distancing as a creative? 

TS: Covid-19 has proven to be tricky because creatives need to experience life, not just look at it. I can find inspiration on Adobe Behance, but I’ll get better ideas if I also attend gallery openings and grab coffee with other creatives, and so forth. The threat of Covid prevents those interactions. My co-workers and I handle our work in Zoom meetings, and we email each other articles or inspiring work to keep our creative conversations alive. But I really can’t wait to meet up with them at a Summer Moon coffee shop again.

CR8VSPOT: In your perspective, how has the creative industry changed, and what do you think the design world will look like post-pandemic?

TS: On one hand, the pandemic has enabled creatives to improve their skills and expand their artistic expression. For example, I know a web designer who has taken up oil painting. This will improve our work because it’s exercising new parts of our brains and will help spark ideas we might not have had otherwise. But I also see some creatives who have chosen to become bitter and are losing their focus by seeing the world through a cynical, angry lens. That’s sad.

For many designers, the office will rely more on virtual think-tanks and brainstorms as people work from anywhere and flourish in the spaces where they think best. Many creatives already worked from home, but stubborn agencies have learned you still work even if the boss can’t stare at you all day. But we’ll also value personal interaction more than ever before.

—“If it is, you forge ahead; if it isn’t, you change. That requires honesty and humility.”

CR8VSPOT: What are you doing to prepare for life after isolation?

TS: Having worked in healthcare, I accepted the medical science and restrictions immediately. I went through the list of AFI 100 Years/100 movies and read several books. I also began planning trips for post-Covid. I just bought Rosetta Stone Italian so I can squeak by when I go to Italy, and I can’t wait to visit Chicago again, my favorite American city. Of course, I’m also going to Disney World.

CR8VSPOT: There are moments in a designer’s career when a project goes really awry. Can you tell us about one of such projects and how you scaled through.

TS: It happens to everyone, and it’s awful! Agile-style workflows like Kanban have Pivot-or-Persevere checkpoints, and the idea is that each point is a time to ask whether something is really working. If it is, you forge ahead; if it isn’t, you change. That requires honesty and humility.

A few years ago, I worked on an ad campaign that didn’t have enough of those checkpoints. We had the copy, the photos, the C-suite approval—everything. We had a complete media buy and a TV commercial in the can. And two days before everything launched, my boss and I looked at each other and said, “Nope.” We didn’t merely have cold feet; we suddenly realized our team had been too close to the content and the general public would have no idea what we were talking about. The creative looked good, but it was too esoteric for Joe Public to instantly grasp. We redid the whole thing in a weekend and it ended up being okay.

My biggest lesson was to plan more Pivot-or-Persevere reviews for the concept itself. I think many creatives, including me, understand the need to fearlessly edit design proofs. I’m definitely my harshest critic. But we also need to apply that same honesty to our initial ideas before we end up redesigning something at the last minute. A project isn’t magically wonderful because a consultant has a slick sales pitch or you believe in yourself or you think you’re just that good. No. A project is wonderful if you keep polishing, adjusting, learning, and editing as you go along.

CR8VSPOT: What design project(s) are you working on right now?

TS: I can’t give specifics, but I find myself working with motion graphics more than ever. In my personal time, I’m hammering out creative ideas that have been floating in my mind for years.

—“…the best idea in the room won’t always be yours. Be okay with that and enjoy the collaboration.”

CR8VSPOT: With the current state of record job losses around the world, what advice do you have for someone thinking of venturing into graphic design?

TS: I have a two-part answer. My first advice is a paradox: keep expanding your skill-set, but also specialize in something. You don’t want to be a proverbial Jack-of-all-trades and Master-of-none. If you love typography, excel at it, but make sure you learn some coding too. Nobody expects you to be excellent at everything, but you need to know enough to talk to people about it.

Secondly, remember it’s a career, which means you’ll start at the bottom and work your way up, and you’ll have to navigate the business world. Sometimes you’ll work on dream campaigns, and sometimes you’ll do grunt work to pay bills. You’ll build a style over time, but you’ll also need to understand how your work affects ROI for the businesses that hire you. Sometimes you’ll have to make decisions for the best project outcome, not your personal taste, and the best idea in the room won’t always be yours. Be okay with that and enjoy the collaboration.

CR8VSPOT: With the present-day uncertainties, what words do you have to share with the creative community?

TS: Keep up the good work and remember this isn’t the first time the world has had problems. We’ll come out of it. Keep learning, keep growing, keep flourishing. You aren’t a failure because the job market is difficult or the economy is suffering. You’re building resiliency that will strengthen you when this ends. More than just looking at yourself as another graphic designer, you need to rise above and see yourself as one who provides a better solution, through your design.

Tim Samaha’s Favorites!

Design Software: Adobe Illustrator

Font: Mostra Nuova, although I rarely get to use it

Color: Caribbean-water blue

Movie: Right now it’s “Bringing up Baby,” but that could change tomorrow

City: Chicago

Inspiration: Mary Blair, Shag, Marc Davis, Paul Rand, Studio Ghibli, and Anette Lenz (she’s my favorite modern designer). Also, my best ideas come while I’m listening to Ella Fitzgerald, Debussy, or the Black Keys. I don’t know why.

Resources: Collections of works by those people who inspire me, plus (of course) Adobe Behance

Achilles heel and turn off: 3-D modeling. Self-indulgence or entitlement

To see more of Tim’s work visit his website